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(1 - 7 of 7)

Creator

Aaron, Lester

Date

1920-11-08

Text

﻿14 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 8, 1920. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: I am gradually getting back--for a little while anyhow--to that which the President-elect calls "a state of Normalcy". I went for a run early in the afternoon and then came back and slept from my bath until dinner time--and believe me, I am going to sleep tonight. I have enjoyed the last few days immensely, but I don't know when I ever was so continuously on the go. But before I get to... Show more﻿14 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 8, 1920. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: I am gradually getting back--for a little while anyhow--to that which the President-elect calls "a state of Normalcy". I went for a run early in the afternoon and then came back and slept from my bath until dinner time--and believe me, I am going to sleep tonight. I have enjoyed the last few days immensely, but I don't know when I ever was so continuously on the go. But before I get to talking about the week-end, I want to get a few other things our of the way. In the first place, Father, I'm awfully sorry I didn't send you anything for your Harrisburg speech. When you first asked me to think about it, I couldn't think of a thing to suggest. Then all at once one evening I got an inspiration and I made some notes which I think I could have worked up into something very good--that is, very good for me. It is said that an honest confession is good for the soul--and so I might as well confess it, though it doesn't help you any and I am heartily ashamed of it and awfully sorry about it--I absolutely forgot all about it and it wasn't till just now, as I was rereading Mother's letter of Saturday which I had read very hastily this morning, that I realized that I had forgotten all about it. I am terribly sorry. I just wired to ask you whether you wanted the odd ticket for the game for Saturday. Cort Parker with whom I filed my cheering section application for the Yale game wanted it if you didn't, and if both you and he didn't want it, I wanted to send it in for redemption. For that purpose it ought to be in Princeton by Thursday forenoon. The cheering section seat is very good indeed. The other two were rotten. They were in the South Stand, that is, in temportary wooden stands at the open south end of the Stadium. I was particularly disappointed, because the same mail that brought those tickets brought a letter from Grace in which she said that she would be very glad to go to the game and that she was just as keen to see Yale beaten as I was. I know I don't want to see the game from the end of the field, and I don't want to ask her to see it from there if I can help it. So I chased into Boston immediately after lunch and caught Bill Wasserman at Back Bay station, where he was waiting for the Knickerbocker to go to New York. I gave him those two South Stand tickets, and he promised to get me two of his own bunch or two other good ones instead. He had offered to let me have two before I knew how I came out; so I hope the thing will work out all right. By the way, when you write on Friday and on Thursday of this week, address me in his care--W. S. Wasserman, 61 Campbell Hall. I am going to use his couch. He wants me to go home with him on Saturday night; I hardly think I will.﻿-2- Grace said, by the way, that she had seen the Princeton-Oxford track meet in London this summer. She said it was awfully hard to keep the English rules of etiquette by sitting quietly as silent and composed onlookers. She said all that the English do to show their "Excitement was to clap feebly and occasionally whisper a scarecely audible, 'Well played, indeed!'" Bill Wasserman slept here last night. He was going into Boston this morning to see some exhibit at the Boston Museum of Art in connection with some are course that he is taking. He certainly has come to his senses on the religious question. He says that Silver Bay is entirely responsible for it. He went to Temple in Philadelphia on the holydays. He has been attending service regularly at Princeton--more than that, he has been trying to help the thing as much as he could. He went around canvassing for it. You should have heard him tell me last night about his visit to one cllub-ambitious Maranno who hopes to be able to fool others by making a fool of himself. He was very enthusiastic about Lazaron and not at all so about Solomon Foster who was doen a week ago. There were eighteen men at the second service, by the way, and twenty-eight at the first. The Dean has been away for some time and consequently was not present at the first service. So much for that, at least for the present. Now for the events of the last few days. The last time I wrote to you at length was, I think, last Friday afternoon. Several of us went down to the Stadium that afternoon and managed to get past the guards to serve as guards at the final secret practice before the game. It certainly was good to see the old Orange and Black. I saw Frank Glick on the field and had a short talk with him. He said he was Marse's guest at Westmoreland and at 372 recently. That evening Bill Wasserman's cousin--Stix Friedman of St. Louis, a Harvard 1922 man, who looks very much like Helen Milius and whose sister, 1924 at Wellesley, looks very much like Dorothy--and I went down to South Station to look for Bill who had wired that he was coming at eight-five. He meant Saturday morning, but he didn't say so. After waiting around there a little while, I went up to the Boston Athletic Club which is opposite the Hotel Lennox near Copley Square to the Princeton smoker. It was scheduled for 8 P. M. I got there in time for the beginning at 8:45. Good old Doc Spaeth spoke in his old form. He said the Faculty had given up as a hopeless job trying to hold classes on football big-game days, and had decided to give the students a holiday on those days. He had been conducting Chapel service that morning, he said, and President Hibben had handed him an announcement to make that owing to the suspension of class exercises on Saturday there would be no daily Chapel service on Saturday morning. "Shades of Doctor McCosh!" was Doc Spaeth's comment.﻿-3- I enjoyed the evening thoroughly. I also enjoyed the refreshments and got away--inter alia--with two doughnuts and three glasses of cider. The cider was quite soft, in spite of Frank Glick's asking me whether I was drinking some of that hard cider! I don't know whether he was just kidding me or whether he thought it was hard. As a matter of fact, quite a few in the crowd had something stronger than sweet cider. Bottles were very much in evidence, but probably in the old days such a gathering would have been very much wetter than this one was. Porter Gillespie of Pittsburgh, who is back in college this year--he used to be in our class, but he was kicked out of college last year for inability to resist the happiness that comes from ardent spirits--that comes to some people from them, I should say--Porter Gillespie on hand and happy as ever. He was happy on the side-ines on Saturday. There certainly was plenty of drinking around twon this last week-end. I think it is a sad reflection on the university men of the country that that is the way they like to celebrate those days of the year, as the Times put it for which one lives. Russ Forgan and Lou Tilden, whom you probably remember from "The Isle of Surprise", entertained the smoker with some songs to the accompaniment of the accordion. They certainly are excellent at the sort of thing. This years show is to be called "The Mummy in the Case". They are coming up to Boston in February. I hope they don't come during these trial midyears. Cort Parker and Lew Stevens and I stipped in at the Copley and walked through the lobby to see what Princeton men we could see there. A big dance was going on there in honor of the occasion. I didn't see any men that I knew--of any girls, either. I did see Helen Klee in the distance there the next evening. She was there with a friend of Bob Wormser's--at least she was walking around the lobby with him. I am quite sure she saw me; she immediately executed an about-face and headed off in another direction. She was all decked out in evening dress and a very red face to match her dress. I haven't seen Bob Wormser for a long time. It is just as well probably that I don't see him much, because we probably wouldn't get on too well if we did. As Mr. Wilson said of Secretary Lansing, his mind doesn't exactly run along with mine. What a childish bunch of Harvards he and his crew are! It was about midnight Friday-Saturday when I got back from the smoker. I was at breakfast before seven-thirty Saturday morning and then went down to South Station and met the Princeton bunch that came in. I found Bill Wasserman and brought him out here. I took him to my class with me. He wasn't less interested than I was. I never had any class hours pass so slowly as those two classes of mine did Saturday morning, and I have seldom been so absent mentally, either, at any classes at which I was physically present. It really would have been just as sensible to cut, because I certainy can't possibly have gotten anything out of them. I met Jack Strubing Saturday morning. He is working with some electric company in Philadelphia. He served as one of the linesmen at the game. He was quarterback last year, as I suppose you remember. he kicked the field goal in the Yale game. I found Mort here at ten o'clock. He had a Southerner with﻿-4- him, a member of the congregation, a qualifier from the University of Virginia, who seems to be a very nice fellow. Mort says that the Union have agreed to pay the expenses of all visiting rabbis; they are letting him make his own arrangements. He has asked several men whom Doctor Goldenson wrote to--Stern of New Rochelle and Ettelson are coming next month, I think. Bill and I got cleaned up instead of eating lunch--we got a bar of chocolate and a chocolate malted milk on the way--and met Margaret and the friend whom she had invited for Bill at the Huntington Avenue station. There is a Wllesly special in to town every Saturday toward one, and I am told that everybody comes in every Saturday. We got out to the Stadium just a couple minutes before the kick-off. We could hardly get into the subway, it was so jammed. I suppose you have read all about the game. It was a great game to see, but it was another heart-breaker--not as much of a heart-breaker, perhaps, as last year, because we didn't really outplay Harvard as we did last year, but nevertheless it was might hard to see victory snatched away again. I think Harvard was very much more disapponted than we were, if that is any consolation. We have a wonderful team, but they were a little unsteady at a couple critical moments. Captain Callahan's passing was the thing, I think, that lost the game for us more than anything else. At several very disastrous moments his passing was so poor that it resulted either in a fumble by the back to whom the pass was to go or in his being unable to get away with anything and being tackled for a loss before he could get started. Don Lourie did some of the prettiest running that I have ever seen. Stan Keck was the real star of the game, though. The Crime said this morning that he played like "one possessed"; they called him the ubiquitous Keck. He certainly played all over that field. If he is in college another year, I suppose he'll be captain next year. He entered originally with 1921, but I think he only rates as a Junior this year. He is better at football than he is at books. The game Saturday, in spite of its unsatisfactory outcome, was certainly a wonderful game to watch; we simply have got to beat Yale next week. We went to the tea-dance at the Union after the game. It was very enjoyable. As a matter of fact, I don't think they served any tea; but there was ice-cream and cake. From there we went into Boston. We had dinner at the Hotel Brunswick near the Copley--Margaret, Agnes Friedman, Stix, Bill, and myself. After dinner--which we all enjoyed, none of us having had very much lunch--we went to theater at Copley Theater, the little repertory theater across the street from the Copley Plaza. It is a very delightful little theater; we all enjoyed the evening. Not many of the football crowd were at the theater--it has a quiet atmosphere of intelligence and culture that I like a lot. The play was "Nobody's Daughter". I have seen greater plays, but I enjoyed it. That is more than I can say of other plays that I have seen in the not distant past.﻿-5- We waited in the lobby of the Copley Plaza until the Wellesley train time. Bill spent the time in a feverish attempt to write up his post-mortem on the game for the St. Louis Star. He thinks he is a newspaper correspondent. he seems to be making money at it; he showed me several checks from them. i saw Ev Case and George Tennant in the Copley. That seems to be quite a rendez-vous for visiting Princeton men. Bill wanted me to go out to Wellesley and spend the night out there with him. Margaret had a room for him at the Inn. He found out when he got there that it was a room with two beds. If I had known that, I might have gone; not knowing that, I thought I'd have a more comfortable night if I didn't. Stix and I had to get Bill's fool press report out after he left; so I just got the last subway train from Park Street at 12:30. The surface cars run all night, but the subway stops at that hour. I got up about nine o'clock and had a very good breakfast at Mem. Then I went into Boston and went to Temple. It was the opening Sunday service of the season. The Temple is certainly attractice and quite beautiful, I think, but I don't think the Rabbi proves a thing. He just babbles; he talks so fast that I think he talks before he thinks. He certainly made less than no impression on me. He had quite a fair crowd for the size of the building. The students who were present didn't look like a prize lot. The discourse had to do with the Pilgrim Tercentenary and its relation to the Jews--a good subject, but not very impressively handled. I wonder whether he tried to dazzle his audience or what, that he wears his Phi Beta Kappa key so conspicuously high on his vest that it shows very well over the reading desk. I am all against that sort of thing. I must say, if Temple weren't Temple, I don't think I'd be found there very often. After lunch Stix Friedman and his room-mate Albert Lippman of St. Louis and a cousin of his and of Bill's who is at Tech--Eugene Weil, also a St. Louisan, and a graduate of Washington University in the Class of 1920--and I went out to Wellesley. We met Bill and Margaret and Agnes Friedman out there, took a walk and sat around bickering. We didn't prove a lot, but we had a good time. We had dinner at the Inn. It certainly does some rushing business on Sunday evenings. Bill and I weren't the only Princeton men out there, either, by a long shot. We took the 8:54 train in and were back here at ten. Billy spent the night here. I got a bed for him in the study. We bickered until about midnight. We got up pretty early this morning. He went into Boston with Stix right after breakfast. I went back to the law. it was a good weekend. I don't want to have to send this letter by freight. I could probably tell you a lot more, but I'll quit for tonight. I have a seat on the Knickerbocker for Friday. That will give me a chance to get into Princeton at 8:26 that evening. A good many of the fellows are going down Wednesday night. I think it is wiser to rest up from one week-end before starting on the nest. Besides, I am supposed to be at law school.﻿Mr. & Mrs. Marcus Aaron, 402 Winebiddle Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. East End﻿ Show less

Creator

Aaron, Lester

Date

1920-11-10

Text

﻿14 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 10, 1920. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: After what I said about Herbert AdamsGibbons last evening, I was very much amused when your letter of Monday came this morning, Mother, with the comment that his address was "one of the finest, deepest, and most scholarly talks" that you had ever listened to. I am glad you liked him; I can't hand him too much, but there is no doubt about it that he has a good line and on the Palestinian... Show more﻿14 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 10, 1920. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: After what I said about Herbert AdamsGibbons last evening, I was very much amused when your letter of Monday came this morning, Mother, with the comment that his address was "one of the finest, deepest, and most scholarly talks" that you had ever listened to. I am glad you liked him; I can't hand him too much, but there is no doubt about it that he has a good line and on the Palestinian question on that is quite in line with what most of the congregation think on Zionism. I haven't read all his books, but I have read part of "The New Map of Europe" which is quite readable and interesting, though the map that he called new was the map that followed the Balkan wars. The addresses I have heard him deliver were on "The Caillaux Case" in which he didn't prove very much and on the problems that were facing France at the close of the war--a lecture which I thought could have been done very much better. Howsoever, i am glad he made a hit. Evidently from your letter, Mother, you thought I used Sunday to rest up. I have been resting up since then I slept again this afternoon for a couple hours, in spite of hammering outside my window. I am feeling fine and looking forward with keen and eager anticipation to the approaching week-end. Please don't worry about my economizing, Mother; that is the one thing I am worrying about--the speed with which that bank account of mine is being reduced. Which reminds me--My Princeton bank-book is in the left hand drawer, I think, in my bureau--will you please mail it to me right away to Princeton, if you can find it? I don't need it, but I'd like to have it. I am enclosing a latter to the State Board of Law, Examiners. You may have attended to it already--I don't know. Anyhow, if you think it is worth while doing, will you send it in when you get home, Father? I haven't been here long enough to have any idea whether I'll last through the three years or not. I am told that a fee of $25 is to be paid now and another fee of $25 when the exams are taken. It seems to me that that is horribly expensive when there is so very little chance of my ever going into law. If we lived in Ohio, it would be different--it costs 50c to register there. I think it is awfully foolish to blow in $50 just for mental satisfaction; however, perhaps you may feel otherwise, so I am enclosing the dope. All I have to say is that we certainly live in a highly capitalistic commonwealth. Harold sent word that he got seats in the wooden stands. I hope that you haven't told him or you, Fan, Lucy that I am taking Grace to the game. I think he'll probably take a Hebrew fit when he hears that I am taking any one, and I'd like to see the expression on his face when he finds it out--it ought to be something to laugh at for two weeks afterwards. Love, [Lester]﻿TAFT In CHURCH APPEAL ___ He Sounds High Note in $3,000,000 Campaign ___ Unitarian Task is to Reach the Unchurched ___ Reaction from War Makes Religion Essential ___ Former President Obliged to Speak Twice ___ Eloquent was the appeal made by former President William H. Taft at a meeting in the First Church, Berkeley and Marlboro streets, last night in behalf of the great Unitarian movement for the raising of #3,000,000 to extend the work of the Church in the United States. He emphasized the fact that the Unitarians are not to proselyte or to win people from other churches, but to reach those whom other churches may not be able to influence, and at a time when humanity is suffering the reaction of the World War. Mr. Taft's visit to Boston naturally stimulated widespread interest in the First Church meeting. The church was filled long before the meeting started and disappointed persons repaired to the Arlington Street Church, where Mr. Taft spoke again. When the former President arrived at the Back Bay station at six o'clocl he was met by Samuel Carr, who took him to the Carr home, 403 Commonwealth avenue, where he was to be a guest for the night, Mrs. Carr being a cousin of Mr. Taft. After a brief rest, Mr. Taft went to the Wendome to dine with 100 or more Unitarians who are active in the plans for raising the #3,000,000 fund. There were remarks by Ernest G. Adams, Richard M. Saltonstall and Mr. Taft. ___ Progress in the Family In the beginning his address at the church, which was entitled "The Great Adventure," Mr. Taft aroused laughter by saying: "I am honored to be allowed to speak to you under these circumstances; I am greatly honored to be in the pulpit of the First Church of Boston. I am going to make an assertion that I hope is true. It would be deadful to make a mistake about it. My father was interested in genealogy and he told me that one of my ancestors was John Wilson, the first minister of The First Church of Boston. He was not a Unitarian (laughter). And if that statement be true, then we have made progress in the family. Continuing, Mr. Taft said: "We unitarians believe that the time has come when our Church should take affirmative and militant methods against the inertia and indifference of irreligion. The breaking away of Channing and the Unitarians who followed him was not a negation of religion, as many people seem to think you don't know. You in New England don't understand the ignorance that there is in parts of the country with reference to Unitarianism. If you want to find it out, run for President. (Laughter.) "Their religion was not and it not atheism or infidelity. No one can read Channing's sermons or the sermons of any other Unitarian who is true to the doctrine of the Church, and say truly that God and Jesus are not fully in the Unitarian faith, and that they are not worshipped with the same reverence and the same love and the same anxiety to conform to the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man as in any Orthodoz communions. The Unitarians schism gre out of a desire and a determination to maintain a religious frame of mind and religious life without the necessity of intellectual acquiescence is a dogma and creed which it was impossible for a Unitarian to square with his reasoning and conviction, and therefore, with his soncscience. Unitarians are Christians. ___ Reaction from the War "The war has left the European countries and this country in a critical situation. We have a frightful lack of seriousness-extravagance, luxury and a turning again to the things of the world in a way that is most discouraging. But it is only temporary, I am convinced. It is only getting over something in a way of the fullness of heart and soul that poor human nature cannot stand too long; there has to be a little reaction from it. But the lessons of the war have not been lost; as is now, when there is danger that they may be lost, that we need this forward march, this movement in the interest of religion, to stir the indifference and the inertia of men who have left the Church on excuse that they do not believe in the creed or dogma, and have given up religion altogether on that account. ___ Now a Militant Religion "Now, that is the reason why the Unitarian Church is moving. That is the reason why the Unitarian Church is changing from its former quiet method of persuing its belief and its worship and its religion-a method that has, in certain respects, been most useful in this sommunity. It has liberalized religion, it has introduced Unitarians into other churches. It has introduced Liberalism into these churches because there are many men and women there who are earnest members of the Church but who are earnest members of the Church but who could not stand a spiritual cross-examination without disclosing that thy are real Uniterians. But now it is necessary for us to do more, it is necessary for us to go forward, and to take our place in the militant religions, and show to the world the faith that is in us by our missionary work in the fields where we ought to succeed. "As we have gone on, we have found that to keep the Church clear and free from fault, as well as to satisfy the spirit of liberty, we must have freedom of religion and each man must be permitted to worship God as he chooses. The Church and the State are separated. No one would have this otherwise, but we must recognize that in this great freedom of religion, made one of the cornerstones of our liberty, is the disadvantage of our not being able, through governmental agencies, to associate the teaching of religion with the primary education of our children. "What I mean is this: That without religion in the schools, the teaching of morality, good, is nevertheless lacking in the fire, it is lacking in the inspiration, and we attempt to subtitute for it Sunday schools and home influence. But the trouble is that for those children that need most religious influence there is no home influence and is no Sunday school influence. Therefore, where freedom of religion prevails, where religion cannot be united by the Government with education, the burden upon the churches to make up for this lack is greater, and the danger from a failure of the churches is more threatening. "General education has stimulated inquiry into the basis of religious belief. It has made them much more sympathetic and much more willing to recognize the usefulness of Unitarian churches, and has unified the effort to spread religion. The incident that was mentioned by the last speaker, Mr. Adams, in which the Inter-church movement is said to have left out the Unitarian Church is one of those awkward incidents-not awkward for us, but awkward for those who found it necessary to make the exclusion. They didn't want to do it, I am sure-the great majority of them didn't, but there they had that creed, and when they go to the stage, when they get to where the cross-examination began, why, then they had to enforce the letter. I presume that was their situation. Therefore, let us sympathize with them; don't let us get angry at them. (Laughter.) Half, more than half, of the people of the country are not in churches, an many of these, though intelligent and educated, become indifferent to religion. "Now it is within the field of missionary work to such 'heathen' as these that the Unitarian Church has, we believe, a great future. We ask them only to subscribe to the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, to take in and act upon the pure preaching and practice of Jesus, to admit its fundamental truth, its beauty, its far-reaching benefit. We ask them to unite with us in the worship of God, and in the study and understanding of the teachings of Jesus. and in self elevation by this study. Ours is a call to the unconverted." Show less

Creator

Aaron, Lester

Date

1920-12-04

Text

﻿14 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 4, 1920. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: The first invitation of the 1920 winter season arrived this morning. I don't think you would guess right off the bat where it came from. If I wanted to arouse the "curiosity that killed a cat", I would wait until tomorrow to give you a chance to guess. It was from Mr. & Mrs. Wasserman, Miss Margaret Wasserman and Mr. William Wasserman for a "Twelfth Night Party" on December... Show more﻿14 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 4, 1920. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: The first invitation of the 1920 winter season arrived this morning. I don't think you would guess right off the bat where it came from. If I wanted to arouse the "curiosity that killed a cat", I would wait until tomorrow to give you a chance to guess. It was from Mr. & Mrs. Wasserman, Miss Margaret Wasserman and Mr. William Wasserman for a "Twelfth Night Party" on December 24. If I were going to be East at that time, I should be very strongly tempted to accept it; as it is, I don't see how I can. I wish I knew whether Bill was coming to Pittsburgh. How long do you expect to be in Atlantic? The invitation amused me, in a way, after the last conversation we had on the general subject of parties last Sunday night. I expressed my abhorrence of that sort of vacation; Margaret dlivered a concurring opinion. Today: the invitation! The other R. S. V. P. in the morning mail was from you, Mother, about my teeth. I don't know whether there is any trouble for Doctor Cuden or not. They have not been perfectly comfortable at all times; but on other occasions when that was the case, he said they were all right. I don't see why you should be so much worried about Chem, Fan. I think it is one of the simplest subjects I ever studied. In physics there are a lot of more or less difficult principles to dope out and a lot of complet mathematics to juggle with; but chem is about as simple and straight forward as anything could be. Are you sure that you aren't imagining things and introducing difficulties? It seems to me that I left some important questions over last evening for discussion this evening. Whatever they were, they slipped my mind. Love, [Lester]﻿Symphony Hall-Rakhmaninov For the first time int he current musical year, Mr. Rakhmaninov, the illustrious Russian composer and pianist, will play in Boston tomorrow afternoon at 3.30 in Symphony Hall. There is barely need to recall to the many frequenting his concerts his remote and impressive presence his ability and resource as a technician the felicities of his touch and tone, his large understanding of the chosen music and his self-subordination to it. His programme more interesting than some he has previously proffered is: Sonnata, No. 9..........................Mozart Songs Without Words (Nos. 32, 3, 47, 37, 17)........................Mendelssohn Ballad-Waltz in E-flat - Barcarolle - Waltz in G-flat.................Chopin Two Etudes-Tableaux (Martial; As a Funeral March)-Barcarolle..Rakhmaninov Spanish Rhapsody.........................Liszt﻿Tea, Mufins and Jam ___ [From the Worcester Telegram] So Harvard is now serving afternoon tea "with muffins and strawberry jam! Old grads who have stood up bravely under the strain of the demise of Mory's at New Haven, the transformaion at Zinkey's at Ithaca into an ice-cream parlor and the raiding of Tiger Inn at Princeton on football day will have to swallow hard to down this latest dose. Afternoon tea with muffins and strawberry jam! It suggests a translation from Tom Brown at Oxford to Nancy Brown at Cambridge. It has to be admitted that for the aesophagus and other items of the physiological structure, inevitable even if unknown in undergraduate circles, plunges into Oolong to celebrate victory or drown defeat are assuredly more beneficial than were the plunges of the past into beverages found upon rye, grape and peat reek.The [Hoisn] announced that it would [serve] afternoon [tea] after the fashion of the [Harvard] Club all over [the country]﻿National League of Girls' Clubs Miss Rose L. Dexter has offered the use of her home, 400 Beacon street, for next week's meeting [?on the national discourse?]. The board meets five times a year, usually in New York. Thursday will include two sessions, the morning devoted to business, and one in the afternoon, at which Miss Marion Niles, president of the Massachusetts League of Girls' Clubs, will officially welcome directors and guests. Miss Jean Hamilton, executive secretary of the National League, will give a report of work in Ohio. Miss Dexter will serve luncheon on that day. The meetings on Thursday evening and Friday will be held at the Girls' City Club, 8 Newbury street. The Needham Girls' Club will hold its monthly business meeting at the High School on Monday. Plans for the coming bazaar will be discussed. A brand new club will be inaugurated at a mass meeting in the Town Hall by the girls of Canton on Monday. Any girl of sixteen of over is invited. The Norwood Girls' Club will provide a special entertainment, a pantomime called "Putting One Over on Mother." The following members of the club will take part: The Misses Irene Jones, Emily Johnson, Gladys Faulkins and Ketharine Kellard. Athol will give a dance in Grange Hall Monday, the proceeds to go toward expenses of the club. On Saturday a Christmas sale will take place. The Newton girls' regular business meeting comes Wednesday at eight o'clock, the council session following. Dodgeville has a new club which will have its first dramatic evening on Tuesday by producing two plays, "Pedler's Parade" and "Tickets, Please!" Mrs. Sybil K. Leonard, the secretary, is the coach. Webster Girls' Club will give, in cooperation with the International Correspondence Course, the moving the picture entertainment called "Heads Win" on Monday. The programme will include singing by the Glee Club. Show less

Creator

Aaron, Lester

Date

1923-06-02

Text

﻿4 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 2, 1923. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: There is very little to tell you this evening. I got up early this morning and worked with Harold Birnbaum on an old Property III exam before going down to Temple for the opening exercises--I mean closing exercises. I had lunch with Dick Mack, went out with him to see August Kohn who is in the Infirmary, and then went out to Brookline and called at Rosenau's, at Harold Birnbaum's relatives',... Show more﻿4 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 2, 1923. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: There is very little to tell you this evening. I got up early this morning and worked with Harold Birnbaum on an old Property III exam before going down to Temple for the opening exercises--I mean closing exercises. I had lunch with Dick Mack, went out with him to see August Kohn who is in the Infirmary, and then went out to Brookline and called at Rosenau's, at Harold Birnbaum's relatives', and at Arthur Marget's. I got back here and met Dick Mack by chance as I was getting a bit to eat and had a long bicker with him. Meanwhile the evening is gone, and I have a lot of work to do. I was out at Lew Hitzrot's last evening. He went down to New York this morning to work in a hospital for two months. I am going to work like a fool for the rest of the week; so I probably won't get any letters written. I have spent all the time speaking to people and bickering with them that I can spend; it has to be hard work and lots of it for the rest of my time up here. Since I'll see you at the end of the week, I'll make my correspondence breif. At what time do I have to be Poughkeepsie Saturday? R. S. V. P. Love, [Lester] Show less

Creator

Aaron, Lester

Date

1920-11-08

Text

﻿14 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 8, 1920. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: I am gradually getting back--for a little while anyhow--to that which the President-elect calls "a state of Normalcy". I went for a run early in the afternoon and then came back and slept from my bath until dinner time--and believe me, I am going to sleep tonight. I have enjoyed the last few days immensely, but I don't know when I ever was so continuously on the go. But before I get to... Show more﻿14 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 8, 1920. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: I am gradually getting back--for a little while anyhow--to that which the President-elect calls "a state of Normalcy". I went for a run early in the afternoon and then came back and slept from my bath until dinner time--and believe me, I am going to sleep tonight. I have enjoyed the last few days immensely, but I don't know when I ever was so continuously on the go. But before I get to talking about the week-end, I want to get a few other things our of the way. In the first place, Father, I'm awfully sorry I didn't send you anything for your Harrisburg speech. When you first asked me to think about it, I couldn't think of a thing to suggest. Then all at once one evening I got an inspiration and I made some notes which I think I could have worked up into something very good--that is, very good for me. It is said that an honest confession is good for the soul--and so I might as well confess it, though it doesn't help you any and I am heartily ashamed of it and awfully sorry about it--I absolutely forgot all about it and it wasn't till just now, as I was rereading Mother's letter of Saturday which I had read very hastily this morning, that I realized that I had forgotten all about it. I am terribly sorry. I just wired to ask you whether you wanted the odd ticket for the game for Saturday. Cort Parker with whom I filed my cheering section application for the Yale game wanted it if you didn't, and if both you and he didn't want it, I wanted to send it in for redemption. For that purpose it ought to be in Princeton by Thursday forenoon. The cheering section seat is very good indeed. The other two were rotten. They were in the South Stand, that is, in temportary wooden stands at the open south end of the Stadium. I was particularly disappointed, because the same mail that brought those tickets brought a letter from Grace in which she said that she would be very glad to go to the game and that she was just as keen to see Yale beaten as I was. I know I don't want to see the game from the end of the field, and I don't want to ask her to see it from there if I can help it. So I chased into Boston immediately after lunch and caught Bill Wasserman at Back Bay station, where he was waiting for the Knickerbocker to go to New York. I gave him those two South Stand tickets, and he promised to get me two of his own bunch or two other good ones instead. He had offered to let me have two before I knew how I came out; so I hope the thing will work out all right. By the way, when you write on Friday and on Thursday of this week, address me in his care--W. S. Wasserman, 61 Campbell Hall. I am going to use his couch. He wants me to go home with him on Saturday night; I hardly think I will.﻿-2- Grace said, by the way, that she had seen the Princeton-Oxford track meet in London this summer. She said it was awfully hard to keep the English rules of etiquette by sitting quietly as silent and composed onlookers. She said all that the English do to show their "Excitement was to clap feebly and occasionally whisper a scarecely audible, 'Well played, indeed!'" Bill Wasserman slept here last night. He was going into Boston this morning to see some exhibit at the Boston Museum of Art in connection with some are course that he is taking. He certainly has come to his senses on the religious question. He says that Silver Bay is entirely responsible for it. He went to Temple in Philadelphia on the holydays. He has been attending service regularly at Princeton--more than that, he has been trying to help the thing as much as he could. He went around canvassing for it. You should have heard him tell me last night about his visit to one cllub-ambitious Maranno who hopes to be able to fool others by making a fool of himself. He was very enthusiastic about Lazaron and not at all so about Solomon Foster who was doen a week ago. There were eighteen men at the second service, by the way, and twenty-eight at the first. The Dean has been away for some time and consequently was not present at the first service. So much for that, at least for the present. Now for the events of the last few days. The last time I wrote to you at length was, I think, last Friday afternoon. Several of us went down to the Stadium that afternoon and managed to get past the guards to serve as guards at the final secret practice before the game. It certainly was good to see the old Orange and Black. I saw Frank Glick on the field and had a short talk with him. He said he was Marse's guest at Westmoreland and at 372 recently. That evening Bill Wasserman's cousin--Stix Friedman of St. Louis, a Harvard 1922 man, who looks very much like Helen Milius and whose sister, 1924 at Wellesley, looks very much like Dorothy--and I went down to South Station to look for Bill who had wired that he was coming at eight-five. He meant Saturday morning, but he didn't say so. After waiting around there a little while, I went up to the Boston Athletic Club which is opposite the Hotel Lennox near Copley Square to the Princeton smoker. It was scheduled for 8 P. M. I got there in time for the beginning at 8:45. Good old Doc Spaeth spoke in his old form. He said the Faculty had given up as a hopeless job trying to hold classes on football big-game days, and had decided to give the students a holiday on those days. He had been conducting Chapel service that morning, he said, and President Hibben had handed him an announcement to make that owing to the suspension of class exercises on Saturday there would be no daily Chapel service on Saturday morning. "Shades of Doctor McCosh!" was Doc Spaeth's comment.﻿-3- I enjoyed the evening thoroughly. I also enjoyed the refreshments and got away--inter alia--with two doughnuts and three glasses of cider. The cider was quite soft, in spite of Frank Glick's asking me whether I was drinking some of that hard cider! I don't know whether he was just kidding me or whether he thought it was hard. As a matter of fact, quite a few in the crowd had something stronger than sweet cider. Bottles were very much in evidence, but probably in the old days such a gathering would have been very much wetter than this one was. Porter Gillespie of Pittsburgh, who is back in college this year--he used to be in our class, but he was kicked out of college last year for inability to resist the happiness that comes from ardent spirits--that comes to some people from them, I should say--Porter Gillespie on hand and happy as ever. He was happy on the side-ines on Saturday. There certainly was plenty of drinking around twon this last week-end. I think it is a sad reflection on the university men of the country that that is the way they like to celebrate those days of the year, as the Times put it for which one lives. Russ Forgan and Lou Tilden, whom you probably remember from "The Isle of Surprise", entertained the smoker with some songs to the accompaniment of the accordion. They certainly are excellent at the sort of thing. This years show is to be called "The Mummy in the Case". They are coming up to Boston in February. I hope they don't come during these trial midyears. Cort Parker and Lew Stevens and I stipped in at the Copley and walked through the lobby to see what Princeton men we could see there. A big dance was going on there in honor of the occasion. I didn't see any men that I knew--of any girls, either. I did see Helen Klee in the distance there the next evening. She was there with a friend of Bob Wormser's--at least she was walking around the lobby with him. I am quite sure she saw me; she immediately executed an about-face and headed off in another direction. She was all decked out in evening dress and a very red face to match her dress. I haven't seen Bob Wormser for a long time. It is just as well probably that I don't see him much, because we probably wouldn't get on too well if we did. As Mr. Wilson said of Secretary Lansing, his mind doesn't exactly run along with mine. What a childish bunch of Harvards he and his crew are! It was about midnight Friday-Saturday when I got back from the smoker. I was at breakfast before seven-thirty Saturday morning and then went down to South Station and met the Princeton bunch that came in. I found Bill Wasserman and brought him out here. I took him to my class with me. He wasn't less interested than I was. I never had any class hours pass so slowly as those two classes of mine did Saturday morning, and I have seldom been so absent mentally, either, at any classes at which I was physically present. It really would have been just as sensible to cut, because I certainy can't possibly have gotten anything out of them. I met Jack Strubing Saturday morning. He is working with some electric company in Philadelphia. He served as one of the linesmen at the game. He was quarterback last year, as I suppose you remember. he kicked the field goal in the Yale game. I found Mort here at ten o'clock. He had a Southerner with﻿-4- him, a member of the congregation, a qualifier from the University of Virginia, who seems to be a very nice fellow. Mort says that the Union have agreed to pay the expenses of all visiting rabbis; they are letting him make his own arrangements. He has asked several men whom Doctor Goldenson wrote to--Stern of New Rochelle and Ettelson are coming next month, I think. Bill and I got cleaned up instead of eating lunch--we got a bar of chocolate and a chocolate malted milk on the way--and met Margaret and the friend whom she had invited for Bill at the Huntington Avenue station. There is a Wllesly special in to town every Saturday toward one, and I am told that everybody comes in every Saturday. We got out to the Stadium just a couple minutes before the kick-off. We could hardly get into the subway, it was so jammed. I suppose you have read all about the game. It was a great game to see, but it was another heart-breaker--not as much of a heart-breaker, perhaps, as last year, because we didn't really outplay Harvard as we did last year, but nevertheless it was might hard to see victory snatched away again. I think Harvard was very much more disapponted than we were, if that is any consolation. We have a wonderful team, but they were a little unsteady at a couple critical moments. Captain Callahan's passing was the thing, I think, that lost the game for us more than anything else. At several very disastrous moments his passing was so poor that it resulted either in a fumble by the back to whom the pass was to go or in his being unable to get away with anything and being tackled for a loss before he could get started. Don Lourie did some of the prettiest running that I have ever seen. Stan Keck was the real star of the game, though. The Crime said this morning that he played like "one possessed"; they called him the ubiquitous Keck. He certainly played all over that field. If he is in college another year, I suppose he'll be captain next year. He entered originally with 1921, but I think he only rates as a Junior this year. He is better at football than he is at books. The game Saturday, in spite of its unsatisfactory outcome, was certainly a wonderful game to watch; we simply have got to beat Yale next week. We went to the tea-dance at the Union after the game. It was very enjoyable. As a matter of fact, I don't think they served any tea; but there was ice-cream and cake. From there we went into Boston. We had dinner at the Hotel Brunswick near the Copley--Margaret, Agnes Friedman, Stix, Bill, and myself. After dinner--which we all enjoyed, none of us having had very much lunch--we went to theater at Copley Theater, the little repertory theater across the street from the Copley Plaza. It is a very delightful little theater; we all enjoyed the evening. Not many of the football crowd were at the theater--it has a quiet atmosphere of intelligence and culture that I like a lot. The play was "Nobody's Daughter". I have seen greater plays, but I enjoyed it. That is more than I can say of other plays that I have seen in the not distant past.﻿-5- We waited in the lobby of the Copley Plaza until the Wellesley train time. Bill spent the time in a feverish attempt to write up his post-mortem on the game for the St. Louis Star. He thinks he is a newspaper correspondent. he seems to be making money at it; he showed me several checks from them. i saw Ev Case and George Tennant in the Copley. That seems to be quite a rendez-vous for visiting Princeton men. Bill wanted me to go out to Wellesley and spend the night out there with him. Margaret had a room for him at the Inn. He found out when he got there that it was a room with two beds. If I had known that, I might have gone; not knowing that, I thought I'd have a more comfortable night if I didn't. Stix and I had to get Bill's fool press report out after he left; so I just got the last subway train from Park Street at 12:30. The surface cars run all night, but the subway stops at that hour. I got up about nine o'clock and had a very good breakfast at Mem. Then I went into Boston and went to Temple. It was the opening Sunday service of the season. The Temple is certainly attractice and quite beautiful, I think, but I don't think the Rabbi proves a thing. He just babbles; he talks so fast that I think he talks before he thinks. He certainly made less than no impression on me. He had quite a fair crowd for the size of the building. The students who were present didn't look like a prize lot. The discourse had to do with the Pilgrim Tercentenary and its relation to the Jews--a good subject, but not very impressively handled. I wonder whether he tried to dazzle his audience or what, that he wears his Phi Beta Kappa key so conspicuously high on his vest that it shows very well over the reading desk. I am all against that sort of thing. I must say, if Temple weren't Temple, I don't think I'd be found there very often. After lunch Stix Friedman and his room-mate Albert Lippman of St. Louis and a cousin of his and of Bill's who is at Tech--Eugene Weil, also a St. Louisan, and a graduate of Washington University in the Class of 1920--and I went out to Wellesley. We met Bill and Margaret and Agnes Friedman out there, took a walk and sat around bickering. We didn't prove a lot, but we had a good time. We had dinner at the Inn. It certainly does some rushing business on Sunday evenings. Bill and I weren't the only Princeton men out there, either, by a long shot. We took the 8:54 train in and were back here at ten. Billy spent the night here. I got a bed for him in the study. We bickered until about midnight. We got up pretty early this morning. He went into Boston with Stix right after breakfast. I went back to the law. it was a good weekend. I don't want to have to send this letter by freight. I could probably tell you a lot more, but I'll quit for tonight. I have a seat on the Knickerbocker for Friday. That will give me a chance to get into Princeton at 8:26 that evening. A good many of the fellows are going down Wednesday night. I think it is wiser to rest up from one week-end before starting on the nest. Besides, I am supposed to be at law school.﻿Mr. & Mrs. Marcus Aaron, 402 Winebiddle Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. East End﻿ Show less

Creator

Aaron, Lester

Date

1920-05-08

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﻿[23 May 1923?] Dear Mother, Father, and Pete: I'm sorry I haven't had time to write the last two days, but I have been very busy. I saw Miss Gibson in the libe yesterday, and she told me to include a phase of the subject in my topic that I hadn't, so I had to spend today writing that. I finished it completely, 110 pages. The Table of Contents looks just like a book. It gives me a thrill every time I look at it! I was the first to finish. It breaks my heart to think of not... Show more﻿[23 May 1923?] Dear Mother, Father, and Pete: I'm sorry I haven't had time to write the last two days, but I have been very busy. I saw Miss Gibson in the libe yesterday, and she told me to include a phase of the subject in my topic that I hadn't, so I had to spend today writing that. I finished it completely, 110 pages. The Table of Contents looks just like a book. It gives me a thrill every time I look at it! I was the first to finish. It breaks my heart to think of not having a copy of it, but Millsy keeps them on file, as they are "contributions to economic knowledge" (!), and I simply did not have time to make a copy. And the motto of it is, type accurately so that making carbon copies won't take extra time. The most important communication I have is one which you are on no account to overlook, and that is to deposit some money for me. I paid the semester bill--extras, infirmary charges, etc.--and am most poverty-struck as a consequence. Please don't forget, as I don't want to overdraw my account. Also get them to send my cancelled checks while you're at it. Mother, please keep reminding Father as long as necessary. I started my Tolerance exam-topic today. I'm investigating the "I. W. W." I'm going to base my drama exam either on "Anna Christie" andI answered [I.R. Suttlement] by saying I didn't know my summer plans + - was sorry not to be able to accept; etc. ﻿Helen tells me that she heard that 195 were invited to Louise's wedding and 295 are sore that they were not invited, among them--the Edgar Lewins, Carl Kaufmanns, Walter Baer, Ed Benswangers, etc. Ruth Helen Kaufmann was giving a bridge for Louise with Pauline Lewin, and called it off when the invites came out. Haha! Also Jane's friend, A Benjamin, who came all the way here to see her last year and was the cause of her Pittsburgh visit, announced his engagement. Further gossip of interest to you? When Jane told me Leon was coming here, she said "The cream of Pgh."! Give me the scum!I Puritan attack on Show less

Creator

Aaron, Lester

Date

1920-12-11

Text

﻿14 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 11, 1920. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: I haven't much to tell you this evening; so I shall not write at great length. Your address of November 28, Father, was a peach; I enjoyed it a lot. My decision to go to the Wasserman affair, Mother, was reached after due consideration. As I wrote to you yesterday, I don't like the idea of missing three days at home; perhaps I used a good deal of sophistry in justifying it. I don't know... Show more﻿14 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 11, 1920. Dear Mother, Father, and Fan: I haven't much to tell you this evening; so I shall not write at great length. Your address of November 28, Father, was a peach; I enjoyed it a lot. My decision to go to the Wasserman affair, Mother, was reached after due consideration. As I wrote to you yesterday, I don't like the idea of missing three days at home; perhaps I used a good deal of sophistry in justifying it. I don't know whether I did what you wanted me to do or not. There was certainly nothing formal either in Margaret's urging or in Bill's. From what Margaret said, I gathered that she had made up the list for the affair; in fact, I am pretty sure she did. When is this dance coming off to which you invited Al Goorin, Fan? If you haven't accepted his invitation for the other, you are quite free to shift the burden for refusing on a previous arrangement with me; as I said last evening without knowing all the dope, that would suit me very well indeed. However, use your own judgment and don't worry about me. Bill asked me whether I had met some one, who, he said, was "an old flame" of Margaret's, but the flame was all on his side. Perhaps there is a resemblance in Al's case. Love, [Lester] Show less